Pair of citizen speakers banned from Toronto Police board meetings

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It wasn’t the same without Kris and Derek.

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When the Toronto Police Service board met twice last week, two familiar – if not always exactly welcome – voices weren’t part of the discussion. Kris Langenfeld, an everyday citizen, couldn’t sign up online to speak virtually at a special budget meeting, held Monday before Wednesday’s regular meeting.

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He was issued a letter that said he is banned from speaking at the police oversight meetings for 60 days – a measure that isn’t laid out in Toronto’s bylaws.

Derek Moran met the same fate. Moran, who described himself to the Toronto Sun as the other half of an occasional “tag team” with Langenfeld, said he suspects the board’s real beef is with him.

While Moran just wants to get back to speaking at meetings, Langenfeld said he intends to fight his ban in court.

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Langenfeld and Moran are “deputants,” in the language of City Hall, and they are regulars. While anyone can speak at the municipality’s committee and board meetings, a repeat deputant can act almost like an amateur watchdog — even if they lack the poise and polish that’s expected within government walls.

At November’s meeting, the last meeting the tag team was allowed to address, Moran called Chief Myron Demkiw a “sociopath.” In the last remarks of the day, he told a “smug” Councillor Shelley Carroll she “ruined the board.”

Carroll warned of “written actions” if such personal comments continue. Moran shot back that she was making up powers she doesn’t have.

April 2024’s meeting was even more dramatic. At one point, Moran’s mic and the cameras were turned off, the room was cleared and, Moran said, when he refused to leave, he was arrested and detained for 30 hours. (Moran said the charge was ultimately stayed. The board would not confirm his arrest, referring a question to the Toronto Police Service, which did not respond by publication time.)

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That meeting came days after an accountant named Umar Zameer was found not guilty of murder in the 2021 death of a police officer. “This is all because of the public outcry (after) Chief Demkiw’s ‘hoping for a different outcome’ comment … I know that they really wanted to suppress any criticism of the chief and any public outrage by really clamping down on what people can say, and that’s exactly what they did that day,” Moran said.

In letters to Langenfeld and Moran, the board cited these meetings as its grounds for banning both men. (Moran’s also cited his remarks at September’s meeting.)

This time, it’s “personal”

Langenfeld seems like less of a headache for the board, but not by much.

Making a presentation about public consultation last month, he mentioned Ontario’s SIU. Langenfeld said: “You found somebody on the service that was willing to back up your B.S.”

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Carroll, who has served as the board’s chairman since January, cut in to insist he “use parliamentary language, please.”

“Of course,” Langenfeld replied, “the last thing that this board does and the last thing Shelley Carroll does is allow people to exercise their rights. She’s all about trying to violate people’s freedom of expression.”

Carroll did not cut Langenfeld’s mic and end his remarks early – which is in her power – but said his comments were too “personal.”

“We can’t direct the public, but we recommend and we try to keep a civil tone at these deputations,” Carroll said.

At the April 2024 meeting, Deputy Mayor Amber Morley gently admonished an obviously heated Langenfeld.

“There’s a very difficult tone that you’re bringing forward right now, and I just want to encourage you to take a deep breath as you carry on with your comments,” Morley said. (Langenfeld replied that his “tone” is established in law as protected by the Charter.)

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Langenfeld told the Sun he began speaking regularly at TPS board meetings after the death of Sammy Yatim, who in a notorious case, was shot dead by a police officer on an empty streetcar in 2013. Over the years, Langenfeld’s interest shifted from the problems he sees in policing to the problems he sees at the police board.

He said he came across last month as “far more aggressive than I normally would.” While he declined to get into specifics, he said Carroll had conferred with staff about something “that isn’t truthful,” which set him off.

An image to clean up

Langenfeld was speaking broadly about consultation but responding specifically to a recent TPS report on feedback about its new strategic plan titled “What We Heard.” That 35-page document, which says the public wants “lasting cultural change,” opens with a land acknowledgment and wraps up with a page and a half on “two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and other sexually and gender-diverse communities of Toronto.” It also features two photos of Carroll.

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Langenfeld spoke immediately after former Toronto mayor John Sewell, who said a change in culture is desperately needed. Carroll cut him off as he neared his conclusion, telling him he was “at time.”

“That does nothing to improve trustworthiness in the board,” he said. “That is an absolutely crazy way of dealing with people.” (Sewell did not respond to a request for comment.)

Moran echoed that comment, saying there is a “huge chill” on deputing at the board.

“People are just scared of going there now, you know?” he said.

In an email, Sandy Murray, interim executive director of the TPS board, confirmed two people were banned for 60 days after “multiple verbal warnings were issued over the course of several meetings regarding repeated violations of the board’s procedural bylaw.”

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Murray emphasized that the “restriction” applies only to oral deputations, as “these individuals may still submit written deputations and attend board meetings in person, provided their conduct complies with the procedural bylaw.”

Through her office, Carroll declined to comment, directing the Sun instead to Murray’s email.

In a statement, City Hall said while a board chairman can cut off a speaker and make rulings on conduct, there is “no rule” regarding bans.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Carroll threatened to remove another regular deputant, Miguel Avila-Velarde, who complained about the procedures during the budget process while seated in the gallery.

“We really do have to be firm on the rules today,” Carroll said, alluding to the bans.

When Avila-Velarde’s turn came to speak, he at one point said: “Maybe I’ll get arrested today. Who knows?”

jholmes@postmedia.com

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